The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

This superb series is not only the best adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories that I have ever seen (and I have seen a few), it is one of the best television series ever made, period. Some episodes are better cinema than many feature films made at the same time. It is amazing to see the way Granada and the cast and crew kept the quality consistently high in every episode of this series, as well as the second series of the ADVENTURES, the RETURN, and the adaptation of THE SIGN OF FOUR. Later shows showed some decline in the quality of the writing and direction, and the illness of star Jeremy Brett also had a deletrious effect. But there is no negating what went before. Jeremy Brett leaves all the other actors I've seen play Holmes in the shade, and both David Burke and Edward Hardwicke are marvellous as Dr. Watson. For the first time, I believed that these men were good friends. Why has it taken over a century for someone to play them in this fashion? The credit goes to the people involved in this landmark production. The biggest crime in the series: why no professional awards or nominations for such marvellous work? There is no excuse for this. Watch the shows on video, recent broadcasts butcher the life out of these wonderful treasures.

I must confess that until a few years ago I fully believed in the deer-stalker wearing, beak-nosed incarnation of Sherlock Holmes as seen on bill-boards and children's cartoons. Then one night my father persuaded me to watch this series on TV and after that I just had to read the stories to find out what had happened.

Ever since then I have watched every Sherlock Holmes movie that ever came on TV just so I could shout abuse at it, all except this series. Of course it has its faults as does every good thing but there can be little denying that when it came to the casting of the lead it could have not been more perfect.

Brett brings such an energy to the part that is sorely missing in other adaptations. Few other Holmes's have thrown themselves onto dusty floorboards with such gusto or made the veins stand out on their brows in anger. He is deceptively charming and at the same time faintly unsettling, not to mention immensely funny at the correct moment. With him we get a Holmes who, it can be said, is a full human being, flawed but only in the way that a diamond may be flawed, that does not mean it is not still a diamond.

The supporting cast is also excellent with David Burke and Edward Hardewick providing slightly different but equally good Watson's.

Anyone who claims to be a great fan of the stories but does not like this adaptation should look again at the narratives and hang their heads in shame.

I have only seen a few episiodes of the Jeremy Brett version of 'Sherlock Holmes' but already (to me) Jeremy Brett is THE 'Sherlock Holmes'. He gives the character a real personality and not only plays the character but BECOMES the character. I know that Jeremy Brett was not always comfortable with the character and lacked confidence in his portrayal of 'Sherlock Holmes' but to me he is the ULTIMATE Sherlock!!!! It's so unfourtunate that a character who ultimately brought such pleasure to so many people brought the actor such a mix of joy and misery!!!! Jeremy Brett was a great actor and a great man and thats why he is one of my all time favourite actors!!!!!

This is a Sherlock Holmes series that is absolutely faithful to the original stories. The excellent cast with Jeremy Brett in the lead leaves no wishes open. Many roles were given to icons of British drama and cinema, such as Charles Gray, Eric Porter, John Castle, Joss Ackland and Eric Sykes. Others went to upcoming stars of the late 80s such as Marina Sirtis and Natasha Richardson. The mise-en-scene was certainly not only developed true to the books, but it was also inspired by Sidney Paget's drawings, which were published together with the early stories in the "Strand Magazine" from the beginning of the 1890s onwards. Compare, for example, the King of Bohemia, who faces Holmes as a masked stranger, or the struggle of Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach falls in Switzerland.

This series is a true masterpiece of television.

If you are going to buy one Conan Doyle DVD let this be it. If you're going to watch a single episode, let it be The Crooked Man.

For this is as good as it gets. We have a glorious incarnation of Holmes and Watson here. Brett's Holmes - cantankerous, affected, whimsical, rude, arrogant, precipitous, charming - can only have been drawn from the deepest possible understanding of the text. There have been similar efforts along the same lines, though none so successful. No other Holmes has come close to Brett's portrayal of the brilliant but obsessed mind, teetering on the knife edge dividing madness and genius.

Brett's portrayal of Holmes is enough to lift this series above any other. But Granada (who are damn good at this sort of thing when they try) have nailed the two other vital essences of the stories and this makes their achievement unique.

Firstly we have a totally new take on Watson, a brisk, wonderfully intelligent man of action, a fearless fellow crime fighter and stalwart support. As David Burke leads Holmes round the Aldershot camp in The Crooked Man, you understand exactly what Holmes found appealing in the bluff ex-soldier, who chronicles his victories, appreciates and learns his methods and soothes his clients when Holme's interrogation causes offence. This is new and unsurpassed. I prefer Burke's to Hardwicke's more thoughtful Watson. Both are top drawer character actors with fantastic credits, but for me, Burke has an impulsiveness and breezy candour that gives his Watson extra light and colour. Hardwicke, in the later series, does a lot more to suggest the difficulty of living with a man like Holmes.

An even more significant achievement is the recreation of the deft energy, economy and speed with which Conan Doyle transports his audiences into the heart of Victorian London. Only Dickens did it with anything like the same authority and style. Lovers of the fantastic Sydney Paget illustrations will recognise his work everywhere in the props and scenery. Many of the more famous illustrations are lovingly recreated, but this is really about the chemistry of detail and pace. Granada have the formula just right. So perfect in fact, that when they try to extend it to feature length, it fails, just as Conan Doyle failed in his own attempts to extend the format to novel-length stories. The longer pieces are again, the weakest of the set.

If this disk doesn't fill you with delight, go back to the text, read again and look again, or you risk undervaluing one of the greatest achievements of TV drama.

Sir Arthur, I'm sure, would have been both delighted and impressed.